Water conservation is becoming increasingly important. As global temperatures increase, drought limits the water supply to farms, cities, industries, and ecosystems. Over-irrigation can contribute to water shortages, plant/crop loss, and pollution caused by agro-chemical runoff. Improving irrigation efficiency would provide environmental and economic benefits worldwide.
One way to reduce over-irrigation is to irrigate based on measurement and monitoring of soil water tension (SWT)—the degree to which soil water adheres to soil particles. There are different types of instruments used to measure SWT; however, such instruments have drawbacks that constrict usage for irrigation purposes for homes and office complexes and for farming or other large area irrigation monitoring and control. A primary drawback arises from the high expense of current options.
For large area irrigation control, a single instrument does not represent a significant portion of the overall cost, but such large areas typically require SWT reports from multiple locations and at a plurality of discrete depths for evaluating water availability around root growth extending into the soil.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an affordable, ultra-low-maintenance SWT monitoring apparatus and method to measure SWT that can improve irrigation efficiency, thereby promoting large-scale agricultural productivity and environmental stewardship.